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Stillwater
Brief History Born Ignatius White, Stillwater hails from a small fishing village in Quebec, a sort of kin outpost of an unnamed Gaian Sept nearby. Though raised unclued, he had a close relationship with his Garou father. After his Firsting and Rite of Passage, Stillwater took to travelling North America, making special trips to Coggie septs and Pure One septs, as the latter were fairly common around his home Sept. He's come to Crystal Springs because he's heard of the eclectic collection of Garou there. Maybe they have nice things to talk about and new drugs he hasn't tried yet... Sheet Freebies spent (32): :+3 Willpower (3), +2 Gnosis (4) :+10 Talents (20), +3 Knowledges (6) :Flaws -1 Expertises and Specialties Backgrounds Rites :Decades of travel, visiting every sept and caern in the known world, has allowed Stillwater to gather an enormous collection of Rites. Each visit to each different Sept was met with a mind eager to earn knowledge and to give it freely at the same time. While there were some Septs who jealously guarded their secrets, more than enough Garou of all tribes took an interest in the open-minded Gaian. He's had more than enough chances to accomplish difficult, punishing tasks to earn the right for many of the more difficult Rites. And Stillwater treats each of the Rites he knows like the gift they are, with reverence and respect. And he'll use many of them whenever suits him, remembering thankfully the Garou and spirits that give him the ability to do so. Mentor :Stillwater's father is a lot like him. Only a lupus. He's a well-traveled, experienced, Gaian Fostern Theurge with more of a mind for learning and gaining knowledge than for advancing through the ranks of Garou, all traits he's passed on to his son. He's taken to occasionally checking in on his son, often bringing "presents" in the forms of lessons, trips through the Umbra, or even new Rites to teach his son. Fetish Harmony Flute (Level 1, Gnosis 5) :Carved from hickory, this small flute has many small feathers from songbirds decorating it. When activated and played, the flute emits an enchanting melody, reawakening ancient memories of peace from the time before the Severing. When an aggressive creature hears the song, they must make a successful Rage roll, or the creature ceases its struggles. Creatures without Rage may not resist the effects of the flute. Any being listening to the sound may still defend himself if he is attacked. The power of the flute affects only those listening to the music. Once the music stops, anything goes. To create a harmony flute, a Garou must bind a spirit of peace, calm or water, or he must bind a bird spirit. :Stillwater's own harmony flute is special, in that it's shaped so it can also function like a bong and, after the smoking is done, can be played with an extra "gurgley" sound to the music. Stillwater performs regular chiminage to the spirit within by regularly sharing peaceful, calming tokes in the flute with friends and strangers. The spirit never asked him to do this, he just got in the habit and decided it was chiminage. Merits Longevity :Although he was born during World War II, Stillwater looks only like he's in his thirties. While the travels on the road (and his own use of recreational drugs) have toughened and hardened his body, he has a youthful exuberance and innocence about him that keeps his face young. As well as what his father told him is a "blessing from Gaia" that keeps their family young and health, well beyond their actual age. Speaking of his father, Stillwater has yet to notice that his Mentor doesn't seem to be aging much either. Detached (3 points) :Very very early in his life, pretty much as soon as he achieved cliathhood, Stillwater traveled across the Pacific (at his father's suggestion) to seek out and study with the Stargazers. There, he learned to detach himself from his emotions, to make his mind elastic to face the temptations and pressures of the world. He became receptive, like a sponge, yet managed to develop an anchor to his true self at all times. So his mind is a ship on the sea, tilting and rocking with the waves, but never being pulled from its mooring. Stillwater embraces emotions like happiness, joy, and even a little sadness from time to time. He never allows himself to feel anger, hatred, jealousy, or any "harmful emotion" when he can manage it. That is all internalized, and worked out in the safety of his mind. Flaws Docile (2 points) :A peculiarity of Stillwater's personality, the Beast inside him is not as vicious or bloodthirsty as others of his Auspice. Whether he appreciates this unique gift or not is up to debate, as it lets Stillwater take his mind away from the natural world quite often, so who knows what he's thinking or feeling? Absent-Minded :You know what too much pot does to you, right? Airhead :This is your brain on drugs. Personality * Has the personal philosophy of "Everyone's opinion is right, in their own way". * Doesn't perform Punishment Rites and tries to avoid punishing whenever possible. * Doesn't get angry, from being stoned /all the time/. But he has a button: someone accusing his Father of being Unwise or Dishonorable. * Other things that can get him out of his natural, blissed out state are: ** People hurting other people. He'll first try and use his flute, then he'll try and put himself in the middle of fights that are clearly not "honor duels" or what have you. ** Someone stealing his fetish. He'd go on a single-minded quest to find it again, usually just resulting in him wandering around and asking anyone he runs into about it. He's not the best tracker that ever lived, for certain. But he'd be sad and worried for a /long/ time, which is just not a pleasant state to see Stillwater in. It'd be like a kicked puppy. * He tends to avoid fighting out of a combination of just plain not enjoying it, and having /horrible/ reflexes. * Loves new sensations, mostly when they come from new drugs. * Is free love, but will /always/ pass on charach as he considers it "too much of a hassle". * Tends to notice a lot of things, and is genuinely a fairly bright guy, but is very slow on the uptake. Too much pot. * Incredibly humble, considers himself far more a student than a teacher, and will happily listen to and agree with anything anyone has to say. Everyone's a little bit right at least, right? * Is prone to making bad decisions, either through lack of concentration and attentiveness, or simply preferring not to upset people. He dislikes confrontation. * From his upbringing, and particularly his travels between Septs, Stillwater has come to a fairly unique understanding about how broadly the Litany can be interpreted. Namely, he believes that (almost) all interpretations are valid, in their own ways. And, unlike more traditional Philodoxes, he has not decided on a solid stance on the Litany. Instead, he adapts his interpretation of the Litany to the general concensus of the Sept he's staying at, due to problems he's had in the past about how his take on the Litany differed from the Sept he was judging at, and he almost got killed for it. * If asked about his personal views on the Litany, Stillwater is /very/ laid back. It's only charach if a metis is conceived. Respecting territory means being nice to peoples' land and stuff, not necessarily enforcing privacy and "You can't go here" boundaries. However, his core philosophy comes down to "respect for others". Everyone wants different things out of life, so you have to respect that what you think is right isn't what others think is right, and most times you can't prove who is right or wrong. * Whenever he visits a new Sept, Stillwater will try and find the Alpha or some other wise and experienced figure in the Sept, and will ask questions like "What's charach here?" and "How do you respect others' territory?" * Stillwater is of the firm belief that there are three sides to every story: Your side, their side, and the truth. In this sense, he doesn't rely on Truth of Gaia nor peoples' word on what has happened, and instead tends to be a bit more...thoughtful about the decisions he makes. If two Garou fight over something fairly insignificant, Stillwater's more likely to make them share it or suggest it get taken away, than talking to them both and judging who actually deserves it. Description Stillwater is not a handsome man, and not very bright-looking either. Though his scraggly, brown hair falls only to his shoulders, it shows no signs of having been trimmed neatly, and often his bangs are tied away from his face by a rubberband or a bit of twine in the back. He has a long horse-like face, with his thin nose running all the way from between his watery blue eyes to his thin lips. His perfectly white teeth are horribly crooked, often showing themselves off in a lopsided, dopey smile. He dresses in the simplest clothes he can manage, often baggy and with as few clasps as possible. Loose linen shirts and drawstring pants are normal for him. He carries either a backpack of a duffel bag wherever he goes, with his various accoutrements. He goes barefoot, naturally. Advancement Advancement History History Hey, man. Yeah...wait, where was I? What? My parents? Sheet man, why you wanna know about the past, man? That's done with. It's all an illusion, man. It's all just in our heads. The present is what we gotta worry about, cause it's a gift! You get it? ... no? Okay okay, I'll tell ya about me a bit. And don't bogart the bud, share and share alike, y'know? Okay okay okay...so, my dad was a totally cool dude, y'know? And not just like...like normal cool. Like dads on sitcoms. But as a Garou, too. He was all kinds of an awesome philodox, I think there are even stories about him, y'know? About how he even got a Walker and a Talon to hug once. And grandpop, my mom's dad? Bitchin' Ahroun. Took down five banes in one fight. Or was it one huge bane in five fights? Anyways, both of them, really pure Gaian. Though my mom, not so much. But...hah hah fuck me, man, I don't even know where I'm going with this! Hah hah hah! Okay okay... Anyways, I didn't know my dad much, when I was a kid in a little fishing village in Nova Scotia. . But my mom told me about him. He'd be by only sometimes...oh shit, hey! You know what, that was probably during low moons! Hah hah hah, crazy, I didn't even think about that til now! ...*puff puff*... Ahhhh... But yeah, my mom played it cool. Mostly to keep me happy, but I think she missed my dad while she worked as a healer. She knew all kinds of massage and aromatherapy and acupuncture... She also helped a lot of the other parents with their marriages, y'know? If they were like...unsatisfied? Yeah... Yeah, I see your smile. Hah! You /totally/ get it, man! Anyways, there's...ummm...where was I? Ah, I'll just skip ahead. I, like, loved my dad. Still do, may Gaia's memory honor him and give him a swift return. He would always spend lots of time with me, teaching me the truths of the world, y'know? Lots and lots of talking...but damn if I didn't just sit and listen every time. He told me how...how /everything/ is relative. Y'know? Like, there's no one right answer to /any/ question. And like...like...other stuff, y'know? /Important/ stuff! And he showed me stuff about how he can use drugs to get new ideas. My mom didn't like it too much, I could tell. But damn, if it wasn't amazing. Good thing I know how to use drugs responsibly, y'know? *puff puff...pfoooooo* Ahhh... Um, okay. Um... oh right, my First Change. So my dad started spending lots more time with me at one point, 'bout when I was a teenager. I was getting all bent outta shape, y'know? Getting angry at things, yelling, screaming. Totally /not/ how he'd been teaching me to act. Not Zen at /all/, man. I thought he'd be mad at me but he wasn't... I found out why soon, as he started giving me lots of new drugs. These weren't all that awesome, y'know? I was having bad trips all the time, all stuff that was just making me go completely nuts. Until one bad trip ended with me passing out. I woke up and there was my dad, kneeling and just beaming down at me. I'll never forget what he said... He said, "Welcome to the Family, son." I kinda went on a vacation then, y'know? Dad took me out of school...I remember my mom sobbing her eyes out and hugging me and making sure I had plenty of clean underwear. My dad took me out of the village, farther than the nearest city, which was the farthest I'd ever gone except on a boat. There I met others like him and me. Other Garou of the Children of Gaia. It was crazy man...we got /fucked/ /up/. High as a kite the whole time, I'm telling you. Man, those were like the best days... I still don't know if my Rite of Passage was real or just an acid trip. Or both! I do remember that they were surprised when I came back. Like, I'd apparently been gone so long they thought I was dead, y'know? I dunno, I remember wandering a lot, sleeping naked in the snow a lot. Really getting lost for a bit, but it was a good kind of lost, y'know? But yeah. Guess I was hardier than they thought. Hah hah! Even my dad was surprised! He was mourning and everything, totally thought I was a goner. But seeing me come back? Man, never seen so much happiness. Our Sept was all about healing and cleansing, y'know? Keeping Gaia and each other whole and healthy, so I like...learned stuff, y'know? Like...stuff! Rites and skills and shit. After all that...oh man! What a trip! Literally! *laughs* My dad convinced me to go on...like...a spiritual journey or something? Man, I can't even remember anymore! But yeah, I took off with my dad's blessing, y'know? I know he'd told me about all the travelling he did as a cliath, and I was all...woah, that sounds awesome! And it /was/ awesome! Man, I love travelling. Meeting new people, learning new stuff, smoking different kinds of herbs. It's weird though, you never get a neutral reception. People either love you as soon as they see you, or they're wary of you and they suddenly hate your guts. But I just didn't stick around when people ended up hating me, y'know? Who needs that kind of buzzkill, am I right? Oh, that totally reminds me of this one place... I'd heard of it before. Kinda a sister Sept to my home one, y'know? Gaian as well, though older and got more history to it. It was one of my first stops, and the place I stayed the longest during my first year of traveling. I got lucky enough to be invited to the Rite of Reawakening! Cool, huh? Hee hee hee! Soooo much fun, and so much love, man! Man, I was all...inspired, y'know? They knew how to embrace the light in everyone, and they sure did love to smoke some good pot. Mmm... I kinda wish everyone was like that, yeah? They even shared with me this Rite that, like, lets everyone be heard, y'know? So that was when I'd get to a place and people would love me. Then there was the other side of the coin... Man, this sept was crazy. All Wendigo and stuff. They weren't all that happy to see me at first, y'know? It was all like...Bummer, a Wyrmcomer! And stuff. Heh heh, that rhymed... But they needed help, y'know? They were totally in a bad way, and I felt for 'em. What? Oh, hah hah! Right, I forgot to mention! Okay see, so they were kinda small and stuff. The Sept was, yeah the Sept. Yeah... Okay, so they were small. And they only had two half-moons and they were kinda out in the mountains and they'd kinda not really made a lot of friends, y'know? Like...bummer, right? Anyways, these two half-moons had been found smooching. And they were all...oh no charach! But they didn't have any philodoxes to judge them, and the Ahrouns were all /crazy/ pissed, man! I guess I showed up at the right time. It was the only reason they let me in, I guess. Cause they really needed a judge. So I talked to the halfmoons. Really sweet girls. Yeah, both girls. Right away I was like...whaaaaat? How could they charach if they were both chicks? But I talked to 'em, shared some bud, helped calm them down. I was gonna fix it, y'know? The Sept would understand when I explained to them that two girls couldn't charach. Totally couldn't have a metis! Ohhhh boy was I ever wrong! Next thing I remember, I was booking it like crazy out of that Sept after seeing the Ahrouns lay into the poor girls and... *shudder* I learned from that, y'know? Charach isn't the same everywhere, man. Hard lesson to learn, and I'd find out that this was the same for lots of parts of the Litany. So I've been playing it careful, y'know? No kissing for Garou... After all that I was kinda all like...screw Canada, y'know? What were the odds that the first Sept I went was all like...RAWR GNASH KILL RAWR! Y'know? Man, it sucked. I was younger then, and I thought I needed to find the True Path elsewhere, like my dad had told me to do. So I went home, scrounged up some of my savings, and bought a plane ticket to...China? Japan? Hah hah, man! I can't even remember anymore. Woo, crazy huh? But what I do remember was finding this Sept. Or temple. Or monastery, I dunno it was all a bunch of them together, y'know? They were all chill and cool and stuff, the Garou there. Totally calm. And they invited me in, like really good hosts. They grew all their own munchies, which I think is sweet. Wish I could do that. They put me up for a bit, showing me around, hitting me with sticks. Pissed me off a little at first, y'know? But I got used to it. They kept on hitting me, but every day it seemed less important, y'know? I dunno why...but one time they started putting my dinner farther and farther away from the dining hall, and I had to go get it. Under waterfalls, over hot coals. If I got mad, I didn't get to eat. It sucked at first, but after a while it just made the food that much better, y'know? I had to work for it, and I learned that forgetting the bad things in favor of the good is a great way to go through life. And not just learned but...y'know I /became/ that. Anger, jealousy, hate, impatience, boredom... It's all just spice for the good things in life, man! Like parsley in your meal, it just makes you enjoy it more. After that, I just came back home and wandered all around. All over Canada mostly, meeting lots of Pure Ones and Gaians and others. It's /so/ cool how everyone has a different culture and a different way of looking at things, y'know? I mean, man! Like...woah! *laughs* Oh oh oh, I even tried living as a wolf for a while! Found a Wendigo way up north who ran a sled dog team with kin wolves. And he let me be the lead dog, how cool is that! He got me started on my full moon ritual, too. It was /intense/ to wake up naked and exhausted in the middle of melted snow the first time, man. So awesome. I haven't found anything like it, since. Any time I start to feel like the world is going too fast or stuff just is starting to get to me, I lose myself in my herbs and spend the night just running it out. I've woken up in the weirdest places... I woke up on a mountain once! After sleeping in a valley! But it gets me in touch with...things. Stuff, the important stuff. I can't really explain it, but I can show it to you. You wanna go running sometime? It'll open your mind, man! (Spends time in a Bone Gnawer Sept, living as they do and "going native" for a bit. The Gnawers are impressed by how hardy and accepting he is and teach him two of their Rites.) (In the same Sept, he plays the part of go-between for the Gnawers and the Walkers, where discussions have managed to disintegrate. The Walkers are proud, the Gnawers are abrasive, so nothing had gotten done. Stillwater's lack of ego and pride endeared him to the Gnawers, and the Walkers appreciated that he was easy to get along with and could be reasoned with. After things had been finished, he was gifted with Gaian Boon from the Walkers.) (Spends time in a Black Fury Sept. Manages, via Sharing the Wound, to prove he's not just a stupid male and actually has a certain level of empathy with women. Visits with one of their metis males and provides him comfort and help that they themselves couldn't provide. Manages to earn respect and trust and they teach him Soothe the Scars.) (Goes running at one point in the deep woods of a series of foothills, and comes across a group of wolves running as well, though they seem to be more curious about Stillwater than anything else. Stillwater runs with them, his top speed just barely matching their lope. Fast buggers! But with his Stamina 5, he's able to actually manage to barely keep up with them. Eventually, they lead him to a group of Garou, and reveal that they are Striders going on a ritualistic run. Impressed by his Stamina and his attitude, they teach him how to make himself even lighter on his feet. (Run With The Wind)) (Confederacy, Reconciliation - The Uktena had to repay him somehow for his unwitting services (maybe they heard some prophecy somewhere that they had better 'balance' their gains with some 'loss of secrets' or else great doom would befall them), so they decided to teach him a very minor rite and the peacemaking rites in return for some huge service; perhaps it was unbalanced, but it's not like Stillwater knew any better or cared, right? He's like "oh cool, you're gonna teach me a rite? Awesome, let's do it", and meanwhile the Uktena are like "Heh, loser...") Oh! Oh dude, yeah, I totally forgot to mention! In the middle of all this wandering around, I totally ran into my dad! Or like, he ran into me. We talked, we caught up, we shared a pipe. I was so happy to see him, y'know? I totally didn't notice that he was all impressed and shit. I dunno why, something about how I'd grown? I didn't grow, I just learned. It was the world that did all the work, y'know? But he reminded me there wasn't just the world to see, but there was the spiritual side as well, y'know? And it wasn't just from the Umbra, but they interacted with the world as well, and all you have to do to talk to them is... Well, he showed me. Showed me how to bring out the spirit in everything I saw, to really commune with them. And woah man... drugs are /so/ much more amazing when you can feel the /spirit/ of the pot communing with yours, rather than just the buzz, y'know? And to help me and guide me along on my path, he introduced me to a spirit friend. A spirit of peace and calm who looked like invisible water in the air. He took a part of himself...though more like budded, y'know? And my dad sent him with me in this flute. Or bong. Or waterpipe, I don't fucking know! Hah hah hah! Well, I call him Bernie. He can make people really mellow when I play him, nobody can stay mad. I'm not the best flute player but I'm getting better. I play him anytime I feel sad and he picks me right back up. Plus! He loves it when I use him to share peace with others by smoking a bowl. I love Bernie. Haven't seen my dad in a while now. He said he'd always be keeping an eye on me...but I think he just meant that metafac...meto... Like symbolically, y'know? So that's my life, or at least the interesting parts. ... Or, heh, the parts I assume are interesting as they're the only ones I remember right now. What? Nah, gimme some acid and the memories will all come back, s'no problem. I'm on my way to this Sept in Colorado now, man. Heard they're accepting every tribe under the sun, and then some!! I gotta see this, y'know? A Sept like that, they gotta know how to respect each other, and learn from each other, and maybe even forget all the old biases! I'll bet this place is some kind of paradise... Oh, and I'll bet the drugs they have are wicked awesome! Trivia * His parents having used /mountains/ of Awakened pot before they had him, and his mom continued smoking the same for quite a while during pregnancy, so Stillwater's spirit was somewhat "mellowed". On top of that, he has been nearly constantly high since he was 5, on a combination of normal and Awakened drugs. All that, on top of his upbringing and his personality, and the time he spent working to distance himself from "harmful emotions" and "material desires" further mellowed him out. Maybe he was gonna have Rage, but because of all those drugs and stuff his parents did (the 60s and 70s were REAL good to them), he was affected by it including the low Rage, low Wits. * Keeps up his Phys primary by taking a stimulant and a hallucinogenic that blacks out his lucidity frequently, and he spends hours just running and running and running and working his body into utter exhaustion until he collapses. Essentially, he runs biathlons every night, and loves every minute of it. So a tripping-out Lance Armstrong! * Speaks Newfie French, though he's rusty and out of practice. Pics File:stillwater2.jpg File:stillwater3.jpg File:stillwater4.jpg File:stillwater5.jpg File:stillwater6.jpg Category:Garou Category:Children of Gaia Category:Philodoxen Category:Homid Category:Fostern Category:Character Concepts